What I am getting at is: Are we reaching the point where we must stop saying “Catholic Christian” and “Protestant Christian” and start saying “Christian” and “Protestant”? Should we reclaim the title “Christian”? It appears to me that culture is shifting in the United States to the point where the federal government will outlaw orthodox Christianity through efforts like those redefining marriage and stripping religious liberty (conscience rights), so that only those Protestant Christians who support homosexuality, feticide, contraception, etc. – i.e., those who have severed their connection to the Church and are now adrift in secularism – will be permitted to practice their faith, and the government, mainstream media, and those led by them on social media sites will refer to them as “Christian” and to those loyal to the Church as “Catholic extremist” (compare “Islamist extremist” already in use). We are enabling this by referring to those who hold explicitly anti-Christian beliefs as “Christian”, causing the general public to not be able to tell which lifestyles and beliefs are Christian and which are not.
I have often mused about this too (the bolded part). It is so ironic that Catholics who have been not flinching in Christian belief despite the opposition of the world to her theology should be the ones who have to claim to being called Christians. And there is outright demand by a minority of non-Catholics that Catholics are not Christians.
But the Catholic Church, though recognizing that, does not seem to be unduly disturbed by it. And for good reason. Maybe after all when all is said and done, it is just a label. The immediate followers of Jesus were called
‘The Ways’, not Christians. Only at Antioch they were beginning to be called Christians.
Why? I would say, and that is just me, to differentiate what they were. Similarly, we are Roman Catholics now, a term that appeared with debased contempt. Eventually we used it anyway, to differentiate who we were.
I think we cannot change the world and least, fight them, in labeling. What is important is the cause, no matter what we are called. Ideally of course we like to be called what we want to be but practically we cannot achieve that. We cannot control what others do, but we, however, can in what we do.
We may be Roman Catholics, but we define it as
the Church, that is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. That seems to fit correctly. Nice and well.
In the country, if Catholics are those who stand against abortion, contraception and gay marriages, so be it. Christianity has been so diluted, secularized and marred with relativism, the apostles would not have recognized it should they rise from the graves (come down from heaven) and visit us today.
Hence, it seems Presbyterians and Methodists who have accepted the secular definition of marriage should be called Presbyterian and Methodist, not Christian.
You are right and why not. I do not think they really will object to that but would the bureaucracy? One can’t fight them.
It sounds “mean” to say, “You are not a Christian. You are a Lutheran who agrees with some Christian teaching,” but we see the United States changing into an anti-Christian state – where Christians cannot legally help children be adopted, where they cannot legally refuse to purchase contraception if they work for an insurance company, where they cannot legally refuse to provide goods for an invalid wedding, etc. – because many Protestants claiming to be Christian are promoting these changes
Yes, it is mean but also may not entirely correct. They are Christians albeit Christianity may not espouse what they are doing.
God bless.
Reuben
